BEC Study Group – Q1 2018 - Page 20

I just left my BEC exam, I was supposed to be taking FAR today. I should mention that I need testing accommodations. The testing center messed up and switched the dates on my two exams. So instead of having an extra 2 weeks to study BEC I was left to take the exam today. I was extremely stressed out when I found out I had to take BEC today. I was on the phone with NASBA and Prometric for almost 2 hours. The best conclusion they had was to reschedule until next quarter which means I would lose my test window for this quarter. So i took the test and now I will most likely will have to take it in April. Does anyone have experience with the testing center messing up your dates?

@ chriscanpass Damn that sucks dude, hoping for the best for you for this score.

@ Tbugg Sat for BEC yesterday (2/26), and regarding MCQ, all I can say is when people on the forum say know COSO/IT, they mean know COSO/IT. IT is more of a toss-up because it's so varied and not structured section i.e. cost accounting, but for COSO, know the in's and out's. I thought I knew it well for Audit (my last exam), but after reading posts last week, I drilled COSO-only (and IT) MCQs the last few days prior to my exam and didn't realize the small details I missed or glossed over, and they matter.

Yeah this is how my test was too. IT/coso and the sims were heavy on net present value and variance analysis. I had two on both.

I also have a couple of questions about Written Communication.

1) Is it possible to be asked about a different format than a memo?

2) How do you start? Becker starts right away with a sentence. Should I consider to start with “Dear CFO”, “Dear Manager” etc. If yes, what should I do if I have a title (e.g. CFO) and a name (e.g.”John Smith”). According to my research, I should not use both (name & title) with a memo. However, Becker is using both when they say, “To: John Smith, CFO” This is truly confusing me.

3) Do you guys sign with your name, “Sincerely/Best regards… Angie Brow” (guess, I watched her too much today) Asking because, I have a veeeery long European name that has been confusing people since I have been in this country. I am pretty much sure a computer is going to mark my name as an error/mistake. Should I sign with a different name? Use my husband's American name lol? Or sign “Future CPA” No name?

I am asking because writing is not my strong part. And I truly need to get over 75.

I'd love to know the bit about the salutation and signature portion myself. I didn't put a salutation but I put this for my signature:

[My name]
[My title – as given by the question]

I got a 95 but that doesn't mean I didn't get marked off for this. Computer grading of writing just stinks to me. I bet people get marked off for stuff that isn't really wrong all the time.

Thank you Guys for your input!

It looks like I will skip the salutation and signature and wait for the score this time. Last December, I certainly included both, the salutation and my name. Ended up with 71. Who knows? Maybe I lost some points because of that, maybe I did not. I know I could have done a better job. For sure, I do not want to lose points because of silly mistakes. Although English is my second language, I have never experienced any problems at work. However for sure, I hate the written portion during the CPA exam.

Anyway, hope I can take the exam this testing window. Have been on and off since December because of the weather and last weekend I ended up on ER because of an eye infection. It is almost impossible to do any studying right now.

Jen, seeing YOU here cheered me up! Thank you, girl! You are certainly, my motivation.

Good luck with studying!

@Chandler, welcome.

Try to imagine a factory is making tickle me elmos. When the fabric is shipped in, the fabric has to be inspected before sewn on, the eyes have to be inspected before they are glued in, the speakers will have to be inspected before they are put into elmo. Because production has not happened yet, these are preproduction costs (to make sure that we don't make any defective elmos). This is a prevention cost because prevention costs are the costs incurred before elmo is assembled.

Appraisal costs are the costs incurred after elmo has been put together. They need to test him by tickling him. Inspect him to make sure he has all his eyes and a nose. To be honest, I'm not too sure why they threw maintenance in as an appraisal cost. But just think to yourself how long can these people tickle and stare at elmo? It's a pretty easy job so pick up a damn mop and clean the lab!

Hope this helped. Rereading what I wrote I'm not too sure if it did lol.